Page to gather information about the intended deprecation of net-tools.
Take into account that the interfaces provided by net-tools, to some extent are the portable ones across OSes to configure and handle some network stuff. If net-tools is considered deprecated on GNU/Linux, please do not just remove the support as that will break GNU/kFreeBSD for example which is using the compatible freebsd-net-tools, or GNU/Hurd which can use the partial support from inetutils-tools.
Nice page with iproute equivalences for every net-tools use: http://dougvitale.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/deprecated-linux-networking-commands-and-their-replacements/
Current reverse dependencies:
- argus-server
- Only uses ifconfig in postinst and prerm to list interfaces; can be replaced by ip.
- bind9
- ifconfig used in bind9 init script and ifconfig.sh test script; can be replaced by ip.
- bitlbee-common
- Only uses netstat in postinst to check port usage; can be replaced by ss.
- bridge-utils
- ifconfig used in test and in debian/ifupdown.sh, can be replaced by ip.
- chkrootkit
- uses at least ifconfig and netstat both in debian dir as upstream chkroot script.
- debian-edu-config
- dhcp-probe
- ifconfig used to list interfaces in postinst and to wait till the interface has an ip in the initscript; can be replaced by ip.
- dtc-xen
- route in debian specific part and ifconfig in upstream; can be replaced by ip.
- dyndns
- education-desktop-sugar
- metapackage that only depends on net-tools because sugar needs it
- facter
- uses ifconfig a lot; can be replaced by ip.
- fiaif
- prog/fiaif-getdev uses ifconfig to get a list of interfaces; can be replaced by ip.
- gnome-nettool
- seem to only use netstat (but fails gracefully asking you to install it)
- gogoc
- guestfsd
- net-tools not used anymore in the package even if it's still depended on.
- ifenslave-2.6
- net-tools not used anymore in the package even if it's still depended on.
- ifupdown
- ifupdown-extra
- inxi
- should not be needed if iproute is present.
- irssi-scripts
- jenkins
- initscript uses netstat
- jenkins-slave
- does not seem to use net-tools
- kvpnc
- laptop-mode-tools
- libguestfs0
- libnet-ifconfig-wrapper-perl
- This probably should be removed.
- munin-node
- nova-common
- ntop
- ntop-dbg
- oidentd
- openvpn
- pmacct
- portsentry
- rgmanager
- rkhunter
- salome-kernel
- servefile (alternative)
- sitesummary
- snort
- snort-mysql
- snort-pgsql
- sugar-presence-service-0.84
- sugar-presence-service-0.88
- sugar-presence-service-0.90
- synce-hal
- systemtap-server
- systraq
- tiger
- tntnet
- util-vserver
- vblade-persist
- vpnc-scripts
- ifconfig, route and netstat used in upstream script, all seems ok to be replaced by ip.
- waagent
- Upstream uses route to add a static route, can be replaced with ip.
- whereami (Suggests)
- Uses ifconfig in a couple of upstream scripts. Not sure if it is really a suggests or a depends, but it can be replaced by ip.
- wicd-daemon (alternative)
- ./wicd/wnettools.py uses it extensively; but possibly it will just work without net-tools, it needs to be verified.
- xrsh
- Uses arp, for reasons i fail to understand. I don't think that code even works. Could be replaced by ip, if somebody finds what is it used for.
Extra build dependencies:
- apr
- beanstalkd
- cctools
- cluster-glue
- heartbeat
- libnet-arp-perl
- libnet-sip-perl
- libpoe-component-client-mpd-perl
- An upstream test uses netstat to see if sendmail is running (!!?). Can be replaced by ss.
- pacemaker
- pacemaker-mgmt
- virtuoso-opensource
- Upstream scripts and tests use netstat extensively (can be replaced with ss).